Sophisticated white-van abductions continue unabated in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 April 2017, 16:21 GMT]A Tamil man, 35-year-old Thiraviyam Naguleswaran from Vaddukkoaddai in Jaffna, was missing for the last 10 days. Three days ago, his wife received a phone call from him. He was being detained at Anuradhapura, the frightened husband told his wife from the custody of his abductors. Mr Thiraviyam asked his wife not to file any complaint with the SL Police and to avoid alerting any human rights watchdog or media. His abductors were investigating him and he would not be released if there was any complaint made to human rights groups, he had told. His wife refrained from complaining or alerting media. But, on Wednesday, the circumstance of a pending court case at Mallaakam courts has exposed the abduction.

Mr Naguleswaran was to be present for a court hearing at Mallaakam Courts on Wednesday.

Prior to the case, his wife contacted Naguleswaran’s lawyer, Suhas Kagnagaratnam, who is a rights activist. She explained to the lawyer that her husband would not be attending the courts due to the precarious situation.

However, on his way to the court, the lawyer spotted the victim being held inside a white-van by three or four men. Mr Suhas was quick to realize that the victim was under threat not to reveal the situation to the courts.

The lawyer chose to alert Mallaakam Magistrate A Judeson revealing what was going on and that he had witnessed the victim being at the custody of the abductors in a vehicle near the courts.

But, the abductors, who were probably informed of what was transpiring inside the court room, disappeared with the victim.

Mallaakam Magistrate has instructed the SL Police to launch an investigation and clarify the whereabouts of Mr Thiraviyam to the courts.

The victim, Thiraviyam Naguleswaran, is a construction worker.

Similar abductions continue to take place in Sinhala military occupied North-East. Only a few of the incidents come to surface as in the case of a trader who was subjected to abduction, torture and later an unlawful ‘bail’.

The Sinhala military intelligence and the so-called Terrorist Investigation Division operated by the SL Defence Ministry are allegedly behind the silent abductions that take place under the joint rule of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe.